Lesbian/Bi Celebrity Girlfriends, Part 1

While the recent passage of Proposition 8 in California was devastating to LGBT people and our supporters everywhere, the issue reinvigorated an international debate about gay marriage.

It also drew attention to a number of famous couples, like Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, who wed in the small window of time that gay marriage was legal in California.

Even celebrity lesbian couples who didn’t get married, such as Melissa Etheridge and partner Tammy Lynn Michaels Etheridge were queried in the press for their views on Prop. 8 and what it means to the future of LGBT rights. Whether appearing on news programs or talk shows, the couples interviewed were typically presented as every bit as committed and family-centric as any heterosexual married couple.

Most of us are on a first name basis with the partners of out celebrities like Ellen, Melissa, and Rosie O’Donnell (her partner is Kelli Carpenter-O'Donnell), but those are just a handful of the women who love and support their famous girlfriends, partners and wives.

With this article, we take our first look at the (often) behind-the-scenes women who love and support the higher-profile women in their life.

Nina Garduno (partner of Leisha Hailey)

You may not know designer Nina Garduno, by name, but if you’re a regular viewer of her partner Leisha Hailey’s show, The L Word, you may have seen the logo for her store, Free City, splashed across t-shirts worn by some of its characters.

Garduno opened the Malibu store in 2005, and its hip, quirky selection of clothing and random goods (custom-made teepees are for sale) garnered both critical and public attention.

In an interview with The New York Times in 2007, she said of the store, “It’s about the experience. I’m interested in having someone walk out of Free City and having had an experience. That’s what matters. They could buy a cheaper bicycle or T-shirt anywhere.”

A Los Angeles native, Garduno got her start in fashion when she was just 17 at the Ron Herman/Fred Segal in Los Angeles, and is still the vice president for men’s fashion there.

Not coincidentally, the store was named as the “unofficial headquarters” of the “L.A. tomboy” look popularized on The L Word.

Garduno, 44, and Hailey, 37, have been together since 2001 and have plans to bring Free City to the small artist’s community in Marfa, Texas, where they’ve already bought an old auto repair shop — which may just be the lesbian version of a double-wide.